


Lambent Light

by ShippingFangirl26 (IceQueenJules26)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Cosplay, F/M, Fanboys Dan and Phil, Japhan, M/M, Strangers to Lovers, nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 16:50:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21182762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceQueenJules26/pseuds/ShippingFangirl26
Summary: Dan has been working in his best friend's cosplay shop for several years, and he thought he's seen everything - but then a stranger walks in with a weird request and a pretty face, about to drastically change Dan's life...





	Lambent Light

**Author's Note:**

> My fic for the Phandomficfest bingo! Crossing off the prompts Japhan, Hair, and Writer's Choice, which in this case is Cosplay!  
As always, big thanks to my amazing partner in crime Yani, love you <3

Dan liked his job. He really did. Overall, he had gotten pretty lucky with it, and he knew that. To just suddenly pack everything up and move the the literal other side of the world with barely 18 years of age was one of the most risky moves anyone could do. He’d gotten the job by pure coincidence, too, but sometimes one just needed a bit of luck, Dan mused.

Living in Japan hadn’t been easy by any means, not at first, and sometimes it still held some complications, even after almost a decade. At least he’d had basic knowledge of the language beforehand, and by now it was hardly even audible that he wasn’t a native speaker. That was probably what kept him running the first few months. 

At first he’d relied solemnly on his savings and the odd job he did here and there that people gave him a few yen for or at least some food. But after around two to three months of staying in Japan - his savings depleted considerably - he’d stumbled into a Cosplay-shop just a few blocks away from his flat. Cosplay was something he’d always enjoyed when he’d still lived in England and had at least some money to spend on a hobby, but since moving to Japan he hadn’t allowed himself to indulge in such expensive activities. 

That was why it was his first time in  _ Miyuki’s _ that day despite its close proximity to Dan’s flat. He’d just walked around the shop, enjoying to just look at the expensive swords and costume parts, when a frantic woman had approached him, obviously mistaking him for a shop assistant. She’d searched for a wig her daughter wanted for her birthday but had no idea of Anime herself, and quite unsurprisingly Dan had been able to help within minutes. 

Shiba Tatsuya, the young owner of the shop, had asked him a few questions about common animes, mangas and games that Dan answered without any hesitance and when he mentioned his english origin, Tatsuya employed him on the spot. 

It had been almost a decade and Dan still enjoyed his work. He liked helping people as well as showing off his quite extensive knowledge of all things geeky and the conversations and discourses he frequently had with customers - not to mention the hot girls and boys he got to flirt with on a regular basis. 

He had been just an unimportant clerk when he’d started, with small pay and not a lot of freedom, but a lot had changed since then. 

Now, Tatsuya was his best friend, Dan was assistant manager and basically solemnly responsible for selling. Tatsuya had opened the shop in memory of a former close friend - hence the name  _ Miyuki’s _ \- that he’d been secretly in love with but never had the guts to tell about his feelings before she vanished to study somewhere abroad; but he was more affine with the management, the numbers and other background work and gladly left Dan to be the face of the shop. 

Overall, his life was a good one, and Dan was glad.

What he didn’t know was that it was about to change forever.

It started a lot like any other day. When he got into the shop he first spent some time chatting with Tatsuya - including a never ending string of teases about his undying love for a woman he hadn’t seen in years - then checking if everything was in order before opening the shop to the public. It was almost August so the NatsuComi, the world biggest otaku-fair, was fastly approaching, which usually meant an influx of customers in preparation of the event. 

Around midday, after the usual lunch break crowd had cleared the shop, Dan went into the breakroom to have lunch himself and left Tatsuya in the front of the shop. He had just boiled some water to have a bowl of ramen when the door to the breakroom opened and Tatsuya peeked inside. His black hair was disheveled as if he recently ran his hand through it, like he did when he was agitated. His dark blue eyes shone with a confusion that seemed completely uncharacteristic for him. He was so intelligent he easily could’ve become a physicist or doctor and in the decade they’d known each other, Dan had hardly witnessed Tatsuya not knowing something.

“You okay?” Dan asked, baffled, blinking at Tatsuya with big eyes. His best friend shrugged. 

“There’s a guy in the shop. Only speaks english, and with a weird accent too. I thought I got what he said but what I understood makes no sense. Could you handle him? I’ll make your ramen for you.”

Dan nodded a quick  _ sure _ and made his way to the front of the shop. 

The man he found there couldn’t be much older than him and was ridiculously handsome. Short black hair styled in a quiff left his pale forehead exposed and his light blue eyes glistened like stars in the night.

“Can I help you?” Dan asked, a blank expression masking the fact that he had definitely noticed the other’s attractiveness.

“Oh, you speak english! I’m so glad! Nice to meet you, I’m Phil!” the other exclaimed with a peppiness that Dan hadn’t felt in his 28 years on this earth. He immediately recognized his accent as northern british, probably around Manchester, and promptly filed that under one of the reasons Tatsuya didn’t understand him correctly. They hardly had british people come into the shop, and while he was used to the posh accent Dan had by now, a northern one was probably new to his best friend. 

Dan offered a short introduction as well, ignoring the jump his heart made when they shook hands.

“I’m searching for a Kirito wig!”

Baffled, Dan blinked a few times, thinking he’d misheard the handsome stranger. “Say that again?”

“A wig for Kirito! The anime character?” 

He shook his head a few times, trying to comprehend what he’d just heard as he stared at the stranger’s hair. “Yeah, no, I know who Kirito is, and it was a lightnovel first, then a manga before they adapted… Whatever, I’m confused,” Dan admitted, “do you mean his GGO hair?”

Now it was Phil who seemed confused. “No, his SAO hair.” 

“But… Uhm, have you looked into a mirror recently?” Dan questioned. Phil crooked his head, obviously still confused. “Why?”

“Your hair looks exactly like Kirito’s?” the salesman offered and watched on in bewilderment as the other’s face scrunched up into a skeptic expression. “It does not,” he said with complete conviction that had Dan blinking yet again. 

“Uhm, it does.”

“No it doesn’t.”

“Yes it definitely - you know what, whatever. Let me check if we still have one.”

Only when he went through the last box of wigs in the storage room he remembered he had sold the last one this morning. He came back to the front of the shop to Phil eyeing a  _ Lambent Light _ they had on display. “Do you want to buy one for your Asuna?”

Phil, obviously startled by Dan’s sudden reappearance, looked up with a disoriented expression that had Dan biting his inner cheek to keep from squealing. Was it really necessary the guy wasn’t only ridiculously handsome, but freaking cute as well?

“Huh?”

Dan raised an eyebrow at him. “You do ship him with Asuna, right? You’re not one of those weirdos?” 

Phil seemed disorientated for a second, then he shook his head and focused on Dan. “Oh, hells no. He belongs to Asuna, definitely. She’s the best.” 

Dan let out a small chuckle. “She is.” After a slight pause he continued: “So, you need one for your Asuna?”

“Well, a friend of mine agreed to be Asuna, and I’m wondering if she already has one. It’s her favourite sword of the franchise but I’m not sure if she was already a fan when she came to the UK… Good ones are hard to come by there,” he answered with furrowed brows, still eyeing the sword.

“Well, we don’t have the wig in storage anymore, but I could order one for you, and you can ask her about the sword before you come pick it up,” Dan offered and was met with bright blue eyes shining in honest joy. 

“Oh, that’d be amazing! Thank you! Maybe I can even get her to accompany me!” 

Dan smiled politely as Phil skipped behind him to the counter.  _ What a nerd. _

Then again, he was a big ass nerd himself…

Dan placed the order and wrote down the information on Pick-up on one of their business cards that he handed Phil. “Thank you-” he began, then he broke out laughing hysterically. “Wait. The name of the shop is really  _ Miyuki’s _ ?”

Dan furrowed his eyebrows. “Yeah. How’s that funny?”    
  


Phil’s laughter had died down a bit, but somehow his snorting rang even louder through the shop. “Oh, you’ll get it when I bring my friend next time…” 

He waved enthusiastically at Dan, then he turned around and left the shop, leaving behind nothing but the lingering echo of another chuckle.

_ What a weirdo. _

___

Two days later at around two pm the bell on the door jingled enthusiastically. Dan, who’d just took over after his break to let Tatsuya have some lunch, looked up from some book-keeping chores he’d hoped to get done in the time between lunch and evening. “ _ Welcome to  _ Miyuki’s _ , how can I  _ -” he started in japanese, then a grin stretched across his face as he recognized the person strolling inside. “Phil, hey! I’ll be right out with the wig!”

Phil, grinning as well, winked energetically towards Dan before he turned around to help someone inside -  _ obviously the Asuna-friend _ , Dan mused as he walked to the storage room to get the wig that had arrived this morning. 

When he came back into the shop, Phil and his friend were standing with their backs to him, looking at the display that Dan knew showcased  _ Lambent Light _ , Asuna’s rapier in  _ Sword Art Online _ . The box containing the wig squeaked as he placed it on the counter, and Phil and his companion turned around at the sound. 

“Hey, Dan! So nice to see you again!”

He was a bit occupied looking at Phil, who yet again looked entirely too handsome to be real, but when he brought Dan’s attention to his friend, Dan couldn’t breath.

“Anyways, this is -”

“Miyuki,” Dan breathed out and the girl’s deep blue eyes shone in confusion as she looked to Phil. “I thought you hadn’t mentioned -”

Dan’s mind opted out almost instantly, completely occupied by the girl he was looking at. His best friend hadn’t exaggerated when he’d talked about her, that was for certain, the pictures had not done her beauty justice, that went without a question. The other thing that went without a question was -

This was Miyuki.  _ Tatsuya’s _ Miyuki.

“Shit,” Dan whispered, which attracted Phil’s attention. “Dan, are you okay? You look a little pale.”

Dan’s eyes remained wide open as he looked into Phil’s light blue ones, and his entire presence calmed Dan’s raising heartbeat enough to regain focus of the situation. 

“Phil, this is - I cannot believe -”

“Have we met each other?” A clear, female voice interrupted him and Dan looked back to Miyuki. He was entirely infuriated with the man next to her, but even with his growing crush Dan had to admit she was objectively about as beautiful as it got. He shook his head to refocus, still thrown off by the fact that by complete coincidence, she had found her way into  _ this _ shop. 

_ If that isn’t fate, I don’t know what is.  _

“No, you haven’t met me personally, but my best friend-” he started and got interrupted by something falling to the ground with a ringing sound. 

“Miyuki?” Tatsuya uttered in complete disbelief and when Dan turned around, he could see the tears in his best friend’s eyes. “This can’t be real.”

“It is,” Dan assured him, and when his eyes met Phil’s he knew something else was entirely real, too.

____

  
  


From the very first moment Miyuki and Tatsuya’s eyes met and Dan could see the look in her eyes he knew she still held the same feelings for him as he did for her; unfortunately, it wasn’t that clear for everyone else - mainly (exclusively) for the parties involved. Phil on the other hand had seen it, too; but Miyuki and Tatsuya danced around each other for several more weeks. Dan and Phil, both involved in the story, wanted their best friends to be happy, so they pushed them together as often as they could, continuing to getting closer themselves. 

It was of no surprise for any of them that they eventually confessed their feelings before their best friends did. They had been an official couple for two month when Miyuki and Tatsuya finally showed up to one of their group hangouts holding hands, and both Dan and Phil were ecstatic. 

  
_ Sword Art Online _ would forever hold a special place in their hearts, and the  _ Lambent Light _ stayed in its showcase, henceforth inalienable. Overall, Phil was the Kirito to Dan’s Asuna - he wasn’t helpless without him, but he made life that much brighter - and in the end, that was what really counted.


End file.
